We took a deeper look at how difficult it might be for people to navigate their way through the U.S.‘s patchwork of social safety net measures as they try to stay afloat during the pandemic and economic downturn. Here are four gaps that we found:

And none of this funding even addresses those who develop long-term complications that require ongoing care.

3. Unemployed and uninsured

Losing employment and health insurance coverage counts as a qualifying event to sign up for health insurance through HealthCare.gov or a state-based marketplace, but that assumes people know that they can. The Trump administration has avoided any broad reopening of enrollment, but several states have done so. Laid-off employees may have the option of extending their former employer’s health insurance through COBRA, but this tends to be more expensive and unsustainable.

Two recent studies project that nearly 20 million Americans may face disruptions in employer-based health insurance, with as many as 11 million becoming uninsured. For those newly uninsured, living in a Medicaid expansion statelike New York or California might mean you are OK. But even before the pandemic, there were already an estimated 2.3 million people living in non-expansion states like Texas or Florida who fell into the coverage gap – making too much money to qualify for Medicaid and yet not enough to afford coverage.

4. Safe from eviction, but for how long?

Stay-at-home orders have been seen as key in slowing the spread, but rely on the false assumption that everyone has access to safe and stable housing. Some people looking for affordable housing placements in March and April found themselves in limbo, with progress on paperwork suddenly stalled. For those with housing, unpaid rent was up 50% in April over March. Many large cities and states have temporarily halted evictions and a federal eviction ban covers about a quarter of rental housing. But this is only for nonpayment, leaving a loophole for landlords to continue pursuing eviction for other reasons. And that one-time stimulus check won’t even cover the median monthly rent in a number of states, especially in parts of California and the New York City metro area. So what happens when the check has been spent and the eviction ban is lifted?

A solution

What if these safety-net programs were better integrated? Imagine if filing for unemployment triggered the next step – either presenting a series of subsidized health plan options through HealthCare.gov or auto-enrolling those eligible in Medicaid. It would potentially alleviate the administrative burden and address gaps in information. States could use a mechanism like Express Lane Eligibility, which allows officials to use the information provided from one state agency to make eligibility determinations for Medicaid, though there are good reasons – mostly solvable – why many states haven’t yet.

The U.S.’s social safety net is more a loose patchwork unprepared to handle a crisis like the pandemic, relying on disconnected public programs and old technology. The federal government is relying on short-term measures directed to those affected by the crisis, but we believe it does little to address the plight of those who were already economically vulnerable and those who will be long after this pandemic.

Disaster preparedness isn’t just the National Guard, personal protective equipment, and bottled water anymore. This pandemic has shown that it is now also the ability to keep people economically afloat through a potentially prolonged and sudden financial crisis.

Cecille Joan Avila, a policy analyst at Boston University School of Public Health, contributed to this article. Her research for this piece was supported by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.